Active Integrated Antenna for Intelligent Arrays in 6G Non-Terrestrial Networks

用于 6G 非地面网络智能阵列的有源集成天线

• 批准号: EP/Y003144/1
• 负责人: Lei Wang
• 金额: $ 21.21万
• 依托单位: Heriot-Watt University
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2024 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FY003144%2F1
• 关键词: Active; Integrated; Antenna; Intelligent; Arrays

This ECR international collaboration grant is aiming to build an international network and research hub together with the pioneering research on active integrated antennas for intelligent arrays in the emerging 6G non-terrestrial networks, to realize and boost the new telecommunication era of the internet of everything and the connection of everywhere. Regarding the B5G (5G-beyond) and 6G, there are still quite a number of challenges waiting to be solved. One of the most important issues is the power efficiency of the millimeter-wave (mmW) systems, so as to the mmW active antenna systems. According to the telecommunications company Ericsson's predictions, the market for the service providers in the 5G area will grow to around USD 700 billion by 2030. Thus there will be a huge market and demand of mmW active antenna systems especially for the massive MIMO systems, which requires at least 64 antenna elements (an 8 by 8 array). However, the current power amplifiers on market only offer a power-added efficiency around 22%, leading to significant energy into waste like the heat, which will destroy and reduce the operation life of the devices too. Hence, this project is dedicated to improve the power efficiency of the mmW array antennas by proposing a novel substrate integrated active array antennas, which is of great advantages in terms of manufacturing, cost and scalability. An additional technique of the active antenna in substrate packaging (AAiSP) will be explored to increase the application flexibility for the 6G service providers. Moreover, align with the EPSRC strategy plan 2022-2025 on the priority mission of AI, a machine leaning based precoding technology will be developed to optimize the mmW non-linear array antennas. This project integrates two ongoing Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions projects ANTERRA and HARMONY, both are dedicated to exploring the directly matched power amplified antennas and arrays. The PI also actively interacts with the EurAAP working group of Active Array Antennas. The collaboration project enables the PI actively working with and centered by experienced academics and engineers from the USA, France and Netherlands, leading the PI, his institute and the UK to be the world-class people, organization and place with world-class innovation, so as to be a world leader, which is also the vision of the latest EPSRC strategy plan.

这笔ECR国际合作拨款旨在建设国际网络和研究中心，并在新兴的6G非地面网络中进行用于智能阵列的有源集成天线的开创性研究，以实现和推动万物互联和无处不在的连接的新电信时代。关于B5G(5G-Beyond)和6G，仍然有相当多的挑战等待解决。其中最重要的问题之一是毫米波系统的功率效率，毫米波有源天线系统也是如此。根据电信公司爱立信的预测，到2030年，5G领域的服务提供商市场将增长到约7000亿美元。因此，毫米波有源天线系统将有一个巨大的市场和需求，特别是对于大规模的MIMO系统，它至少需要天线单元(8×8阵列)。然而，目前市场上的功率放大器只能提供22%左右的功率附加效率，导致大量的能量被浪费在热量等方面，这也会破坏和缩短器件的使用寿命。因此，本项目致力于提高毫米波阵列天线的功率效率，提出了一种新型的基片集成有源阵列天线，该天线在制造、成本和可扩展性方面具有很大的优势。为了增加6G服务提供商的应用灵活性，将探索一种额外的基板封装中的有源天线技术(AAISP)。此外，结合EPSRC战略计划2022-2025年的人工智能优先任务，将开发基于机器学习的预编码技术来优化毫米波非线性阵列天线。该项目整合了两个正在进行的Marie Sklodowska-Curie行动项目Anterra和Harmonity，这两个项目都致力于探索直接匹配的功率放大天线和阵列。PI还与EurAAP有源阵列天线工作组积极互动。该合作项目使PI积极与来自美国、法国和荷兰的资深学者和工程师合作，并以此为中心，带领PI及其研究所和英国成为世界一流的人、组织和场所，具有世界一流的创新能力，成为世界领先的企业，这也是EPSRC最新战略计划的愿景。